Since I have painted quite a number of paintings in artcollege, I will try my hand at writing a decent critique. I will keep in mind that this is your first painting.

I like the vision, the silhouette of a well-dressed lady simmers through. It makes me wonder what the meaning behind the artwork is. Trancendency throughout time? Reflections of the past? I think this artwork could very well start a series in it's genre, you would make mutiple golden silhouette paintings.

A plus is the relationship between gold/yellow and purple. The two are complementary colors and work well together. The placement of the silhouette is also well thought of.

Discussing technique now, I will point a few things out. I know it is your first painting, but therefor it would be best if you kept the following in mind.

Before you get started, it is always best to apply a layer of gesso on your canvas. It protects the work against aging and color loss. You can also make a very nice texture by putting thick layers of gesso over each other, the underground then becomes grungy.

A second something I would like to point out is to paint your background completely. It looks like you drew the silhouette directly on the canvas, sparing out the figure, painting the gold layer and purple layer next to each other instead of over each other. Best thing to do is to first paint the complete background, and then paint the golden figure on the background, in several layers if necesarry.

If you do this, the stripes and blurs on the background would disappear underneath the golden figure, now it looks like you tried to paint the background against the edges of the figure, the blurs suddenly stop against the figure.

Last thing I would like to point out is the sharpness of the silhouette. I would take a thin brush, and repaint the edges of the figure with a darker purple, to sharpen certain areas.

Also, always try to keep the anatomy in mind, if possible. This isn't easy since she is wearing a dress, but her left arm is a bit too thick in comparison to her right arm. Adding fine details such as a nose, eyelashes and some strokes of hair would give the painting a crisp final touch and is something you can consider doing.

I hope some of the tips will help you when you make a second painting. When painting, you always first apply gesso and a full colored background before starting on foreground figures. UNLESS you want the gesso to be your background ofcourse.

All in one, this is rather good for a first painting, but it still needs a bit of work. Well done, and I hope to see more of you in the future.